Stephen Hunt's Blog, page 20
March 13, 2012
Your steampunk wine opener, my lord
Rob Higg has made a working steampunk automaton corkscrew to satisfy his desire to drink wine like an airship captain character from Jack Cloudie.
Good on you, Rob.
March 11, 2012
Steampunk feature film, Oculista
Here's an interesting-looking trailer for a steampunk-influenced feature film which is trying to get off the ground. It's called Oculista, and its teaser reads as: "A factory where humans ride penny-farthing cycles, powering something unknown, and receive frequent hypnotic leisure experiences, all with the promise of the entrance to a dream city."
The people behind some of the FX are the ever-reliable www.justinillusions.co.uk/
March 7, 2012
SimCity 2013? Goodbye novels…
How the hell am I going to get any genre novel writing done now, with SimCity 2013 coming and looking as good as it does in this trailer? I ask you. Grumble grumble. It's a tough sim life. But somebody has got to play it I suppose…
March 5, 2012
Men in Black 3 – new trailer.
Here's the second trailer for the Men in Black 3 movie. Looks like an improvement on the second film, at least at the trailer stage. But hey, everyone loves some 1960s scifi and time travel… it might even help me get over a lack of Mad Men and Pan Am.
February 25, 2012
The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra
Here's the new trailer for The Last Airbender: The Legend of Korra… as you can see, it looks more dieselpunk than steampunk, now. But then it is set a couple of centuries after the original cartoon series, so I guess you would expect to see some progress in the world!
February 23, 2012
Meet the new jungle water-world, says NASA
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has come up with a new class of planet, a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere. It's smaller than Uranus but larger than Earth. Zachory Berta of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and colleagues made the observations of the planet GJ1214b.
"GJ1214b is like no planet we know of," Berta said. "A huge fraction of its mass is made up of water."
The ground-based MEarth Project, led by CfA's David Charbonneau, discovered GJ1214b in 2009. This super-Earth is about 2.7 times Earth's diameter and weighs almost seven times as much. It orbits a red-dwarf star every 38 hours at a distance of 1.3 million miles, giving it an estimated temperature of 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
In 2010, CfA scientist Jacob Bean and colleagues reported that they had measured the atmosphere of GJ1214b, finding it likely that it was composed mainly of water. However, their observations could also be explained by the presence of a planet-enshrouding haze in GJ1214b's atmosphere. Berta and his co-authors used Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 to study GJ1214b when it crossed in front of its host star. During such a transit, the star's light is filtered through the planet's atmosphere, giving clues to the mix of gases.
"We're using Hubble to measure the infrared color of sunset on this world," Berta explained.
Hazes are more transparent to infrared light than to visible light, so the Hubble observations help tell the difference between a steamy and a hazy atmosphere. They found the spectrum of GJ1214b to be featureless over a wide range of wavelengths, or colors. The atmospheric model most consistent with the Hubble data is a dense atmosphere of water vapor.
"The Hubble measurements really tip the balance in favor of a steamy atmosphere," Berta said.
Since the planet's mass and size are known, astronomers can calculate the density, of only about 2 grams per cubic centimeter. Water has a density of 1 gram per cubic centimeter, while Earth's average density is 5.5 grams per cubic centimeter. This suggests that GJ1214b has much more water than Earth does, and much less rock. As a result, the internal structure of GJ1214b would be an extraordinarily different world than our world.
"The high temperatures and high pressures would form exotic materials like 'hot ice' or 'superfluid water,' substances that are completely alien to our everyday experience," Berta said.
Theorists expect that GJ1214b formed farther out from its star, where water ice was plentiful, and migrated inward early in the system's history. In the process, it would have passed through the star's habitable zone, where surface temperatures would be similar to Earth's. How long it lingered there is unknown. GJ1214b is located in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus, and just 40 light-years from Earth. Therefore, it's a prime candidate for study by the planned James Webb Space Telescope.
Yamato cannon… online, skipper!
Yes, it's time for the second trailer for Space BattleShip Yamato 2199, the sequel to the original scifi cartoon series. Just what you need to defeat an alien invasion of Earth… a rusty battleship that's been on the bottom of the ocean for the last few centuries. Genius.
February 20, 2012
The Steampunk Opium Wars
An extract from The Steampunk Opium Wars musical extravaganza, premiéred at the National Maritime Museum 16th February 2012. Written by Anna Chen.
February 13, 2012
Marvel Comics perfumes launch at TIA Toy Fair.
I swear, you can't make this shit up. Marvel's The Avengers may not hit cinemas until May 4th 2012, but thanks to JADS, fans can soon get an exclusive "whiff" of the film. JADS, a company producing fragrances, is debuting their line of Marvel colognes and perfumes at the Toy Industry Association's Toy Fair this weekend in New York City. The Avengers Cologne Set, Black Widow Perfume, Infinity Formula for Men, and Mischief Cologne will be available to the public in April in the U.S. and Canada.
The Avengers Cologne Set features four heroic fragrances: Patriot Cologne : Your Attack Plan, Mark VII Cologne: Armor Up, Worthy: Posses the Power, and Smash!: Be Angry.
Patriot Cologne , inspired by Captain America, pays homage to the confident, stand-up-to-bullies, hard-working average Joe in everyman. The cologne features hints of green lime and white pepper with finishes of dry oak wood, sandalwood and tequila.
Mark VII Cologne, inspired by Iron Man, combines mandarin and jasmine with light patchouli to create a contemporary expression of "I don't play well with others" confidence, leaving you ready for whatever a genius, billionaire, playboy-philanthropist might encounter throughout their day.
Worthy Cologne , inspired by Thor, is a woody citrus cologne with a combination of bergamot, frozen ginger and wheatgrass blended with a hint of fresh natural grapefruit and layered with cypress, creating a deep dry masculine almost "God-like" musk.
SMASH!, inspired by Hulk, is a clean scent with clear top notes of water lily and nutmeg, which carries on an intense woody dry down, enriched with Indian sandalwood, dry musk and warm cedar. Complementary to full range emotions, it wears well at work, in the lab, or an evening out on the town.
Three other scents are available outside of the Avenger Cologne Pack: Black Widow Perfume, Infinity Formula Cologne and Mischief Cologne .
Black Widow Perfume – Russian spy, trained assassin, world-class ballerina, girl from legal department. This perfume has a clear shot of citrus slowly giving way to sensual caramel and honey. The scent dries down with a blend of bitter chocolate, clear patchouli and praline.
Infinity Formula Cologne – Inspired by Nick Fury, CIC of S.H.I.E.L.D., this cologne is a seductive fragrance for not just any man, but only for those who will risk everything to keep the dream of freedom alive. And sure, you could describe it as a citron cocktail smoothed over with a couple of stiff shots of tonka bean and guaiac wood, or you could just put it on and know it makes you smell good.
Mischief Cologne – Inspired by Thor's bad brother, Loki, this unisex fragrance combines a base of green tea and amber with bergamot and cardamom in a dangerous-sexy, yet playful way that wears well on anyone, day or night.
"Everyone has a favorite comic book hero, right? Now fans can experience what they love about these iconic characters in a much more personal way," said Andrew Levine, Chief Executive Officer of JADS.
Good god, what next? Captain America Jock Straps? Of course, this is from the same perfume house that brought us Pon Farr (Leave Logic Behind), and Slave Leia.
February 10, 2012
Space 2099 poster (aka the Space 1999 reboot)
Here's the first poster for the reboot of the classic Space 1999 TV series by ITV in the UK, with the help of HDFILMS, the US bunch behind the recent 'V' remake. The main difference between the classic and new Space 2099 series is the reason for the moon being ripped out of Earth orbit. In the classic series, it was due to a nuclear waste disposal dump going up in flames – in this new one, it's going to be down to a dangerous super-collider style physics experiment going south and opening a rogue worm hole which sucks the moon away and keeps on spitting into new solar systems every episode.
And of course, now the cutting edge Moonbase Alpha communicators of the 1970s (kind of stick-like mobile phones with TV screens built into the top), look dated compared to even the humble iPhone.
Will they dare 'improve' on the classic Eagle and Hawk Interceptor starship designs, that's the real question? Ah, the airfix models of my ill-spent youth. It's all coming back.
